Categories
MARKETING

Sex Sells

I recently read my classmate Eric’s blog post: Peta . He comments on the new PETA ads, where celebrities support animal rights by posing nude.

All of the ads are also sexually suggestive, because this instantly grabs people’s attention. Many marketers have known that sex sells best for a long time, and have been using this trick to sell products. In fact, a large amount of ads for trendy clothing stores are sexually suggestive (Calvin Klein, Guess, DKNY…etc). I don’t think this is unethical or immoral of the marketers or the companies, because they are using marketing tactics to increase consumer awareness of their products. And it’s definitely true that people will remember an ad that is sexually suggestive versus one that is boring. Using sex to sell products is becoming, or is already a part of our lives. Products that have nothing to do with sex are being sold with sex. For example, here’s a German vacuum company’s ad:

It took me a few seconds to spot the vacuum in the ad.

Categories
MARKETING

Unethical Marketing: Heineken Vs Bavaria

In the last mini-case, we briefly discussed ambush marketing, and the ethical issues behind those practices. It reminded me of two Youtube videos I came across a while ago. bavaria-beer-spoofThe first one was the walk-in closet advertisement for Heineken, and the second is a parody of the first (except with alternate ending) that advertised Bavaria (another brand of beer). When the Heineken commercial was first aired, people responded well to it. A few months after, Bavaria, Heineken’s competitor, responded by using the wide exposure of the Heineken commercial to its advantage by airing a parody of the first. After conducting some research, I found that Heineken and Bavaria do not operate under the same parent company, which means the management of Heineken probably were not too pleased by Bavaria’s parody. Although Bavaria did not portray Heineken negatively in their marketing video, the consumers who have watched Heineken’s original video would see Bavaria as superior. Heineken-Grolsch-BavariaBavaria leveraged the fame of their competitor’s successful advertising campaign to their advantage, and bypassed the anti-negative advertising laws to put down their competitor. I believe Bavaria’s method of advertising is very clever, but unethical.

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Categories
COMM486G

Corporate Social Responsibility: the Haiti Relief Efforts

Today I came across an interesting news article from Yahoo! News titled “Haiti Relief: Corporate Donations – See How Much Major Companies Are Donating.” The articles lists more than 40 major corporations in the US and their donations. Most companies donated $500 000 or $1 million. Although I support donations to Haiti, I keep on thinking about Milton Friedman’s pessimistic views on corporate social responsibility, and what he would say if he were alive. I feel as if many of the companies are mainly donating to compete with competitors (Pepsi donated $1 million, then CocaCola donated $1 million too!! This just makes their actions seem insincere). A while ago, I watched a video about 9/11 and some of its effects. One New York stock broker admitted that when he realized the World Trade Centre was attacked, his first thought was “what will happen to the stocks?!” Similarly, I am sure that the first thing that went through some executives’ heads when they received news of Haiti’s disaster was “here’s a chance for us to seem socially responsible!” I have to agree with Friedman that businesses cannot and should not be responsible to society. It’s up to the individuals to better society if they wish to.

haiti_relief_supplies

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Categories
COMM486G

Business Ethics: The Tyco International Fraud Case

tyco_2The Tyco fraud case in 2002 was a corporate scandal involving the executive management of Tyco International, a global company that provides a variety of products and services ranging from water purification to armoured wires. kozlowskimug1The CEO Dennis Kozlowski and the CFO Mark Swartz unethically used their power and status for personal gain when they purchased and sold Tyco shares for 430 million dollars while concealing the facts from Tyco’s investors.

When I was on wikipedia searching up the background information to the Tyco case, I found something interesting: After all the crime Kozlowski has committed, he still insists he is innocent. When he was interviewed in 2007 by CBS television’s newsmagazine 60 Minutes, he firmed stated “I am absolutely not guilty of the charges… . There was no criminal intent here. Nothing was hidden. There were no shredded documents… . All the information the prosecutors got was directly off the books and records of the company.”

I can not believe Kozlowski still “believes” in his innocent and has no shame in saying it after STEALING so many people’s money!

Links:

www.cbc.ca/money/story/2002/09/12/tyco020912.html

http://tyco.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=282

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